Garda review - Overhaul of force must be carried out
Under the headline “time to move on”, the current issue of the Garda Review makes clear that the “vast majority of members of the Garda Síochána who are doing a difficult job in difficult circumstances regret very much that the force is cast in this shocking and unsavoury position”.
No member, it adds, likes to see the good name and reputation of the force being sullied by what went on in Donegal.
Leaving no room for doubt on where it stands, the review bluntly accuses senior management of not dealing with the issues more swiftly and more ruthlessly.
Even more revealing are the comments of a garda based in Donegal who expresses the anger, sadness, despair and relief shared by so many of his colleagues. Anger and sadness at the breach of trust by a handful of gardaí in their duty to the people of Ireland; despair over the failure of senior officers to look behind the hype for the substance of what they were being told, accepting instead the illusion rather than looking for the reality.
In a revealing insight into the reaction of rank-and-file members, Garda Michael O’Boyce, a member of the central executive of the GRA, also expresses relief that the report of Mr Justice Frederick Morris exposed the shortcomings at management level. But this relief will be short-lived if the lessons are not learned and the nettles are not grasped.
People have yet to discover whether the report will galvanise the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner into taking the drastic action which the public demands.
Up to now, only a few senior officers have retired from the force, but apart from writing to them, no direct action has yet been taken against the main culprits - a superintendent and detective garda - accused of orchestrating the planting of ammunition and hoax explosives and also of lying to the tribunal.
There was palpable disquiet over the decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions not to prosecute gardaí accused by Justice Morris of deceit and lying.
While the Garda Review states there is no evidence to suggest a similar situation exists today, we should not forget that Morris offers no such guarantee.
The damning report goes to the very heart of a system where the normal checks and balances of management no longer existed, an organisation that was riddled with bad practices and so rotten it needed a tribunal to bring out the truth.
Emphasising the need to ensure that what happened in Donegal can never happen again, the editorial raises a fundamental question on what type of policing and police service this country wants.
The Government must not close its ears to the calls by rank-and-file gardaí for a forum on policing, an open-ended process where all views would be aired with the aim of drawing up a blueprint of reforms to drag the force into the 21st century.
There can be no doubt the Garda Review echoes the public’s deep sense of anger, outrage and dismay at the Morris findings.
What people now want is action - not promises.
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